DEVELOPMENT OF A NUMERICAL OPTIMIZATION TOOL FOR FPSO MOORING LINE PARAMETERS

As the exploration of oil and gas progresses into deeper waters, efforts to utilise optimization techniques in automating the mooring design process are continuously
being explored. However, the selection procedure of mooring line parameters which is a critical aspect of mooring system design has remained based on a trial-and-error approach heavily depending on the experience of the engineers. Hence, the main objective of this research is to develop a numerical optimization tool (MooOpT4FPSO) that optimizes mooring line design parameters of FPSO using Regrouping Particle
Swarm Optimization (RegPSO) technique. The numerical tool is an integration of a RegPSO algorithm (developed in MATLAB) and a commercial software OrcaFlex, with the capability to simultaneously optimize azimuth angles, line radius, line length, and line diameter of turret FPSO.